Case study: The Funhouse (1981) and The Orphanage (2007)

The Taxes Chainsaw Massacre

Characters and their representation

The trailer Texas Massacre shows how female characters are vulnerable and the male characters are shown to be more dominanting ones as they are portrayed as the antagonist. Binary opposite is illustrated by the use of the two female characters: one is shown to be the innocent and pure one, whereas the other is more of a rebellious character, which is seen as more or less as a sinner. This is mostly displayed through the use of the character’s costumes and their gestures (flirtatious).    

Setting

The mise-en-scene of the location is set in an isolated area, which is a convention of a horror film. This makes the scenes contain eerie atmosphere. The main setting in the film is the remote house, surrounded by forest to make the sure the characters does not escape easily. This creates an uneasy feel to the audience as they will have to see the horrible things the character go through, similar to accomplishing them in their journey.   

Narrative

A non-diegetic sound of voice-over is used as a narrator to inform the audience about some background information on the crime occurring in Texas. The use of diegetic sound, dialogue is used to let the audience know what is going to happen in the film.  

Theories linked to the trailers

The last girl standing because throughout the trailer, the female character is seen to be fighting against the antagonist, when all her friends are getting murdered one by one. Also, the use of her costume as she is shown as the innocent and pure one whereas, the other female character is shown to be wearing revealing clothes portraying her to be a sinner.  

Types of shots

Variety of shots has been used to show the dominance of the antagonist and the vulnerability of the antagonist and her friends. In the beginning Extreme close up is to show a light bulb flashing and then a dead person’s hand. That is followed by a long shot to introduce the antagonist. When the antagonist is shown, the use of low angle is used to show his authority and a high angle is used with an over the shoulder shot to show how the other characters are inferior to the antagonist. A medium shot which pans in to become a close up shot is used to show the setting and the antagonist’s terrifying face mask.  

Representation of gender- trailers

Nightmare in Elm Street (1984)

Nightmare in Elm Stree was directed by Wes Craven, which is a slasher genre. In the beginning of the scene three little girls are seen to be plating with white clothes on to suggesting their purity and innocence. However, the first person to die is shown to be a girl, who is seen to be having ‘sex’ before marries. A point of view shot of the antagonist is used, where his hand is shown to be grabbing the girl. This suggests that the male antagonist has more dominance and power than the girl. Throughout the trailer, the antagonist is seen to be hunting girls to show how vulnerable females are, however the theory of ‘last girl standing’ is used to subvert from the stereotype of how females are weaker than males. Medium shots are used to show how she is trying to fight back and is determine to survive. Hypodermic needle theory is being used in this trailer to show teenagers if they do something bad this could happen to them as well. Therefore, trying to persuade the teenagers to stay out of trouble.

The cabin in the woods (2012)

In this trailer females are still objectified because even if their costume are not too revealing, their gestures seen to be very sedative (Laura Maulvey). A low angle of is used to show a female dancing and a close up is shown of her trying to kiss the wolf head. This is shown to suggest how women are less intelligent and only care about sex. Also, the male protagonist is seen to be leading the group, where the protagonist girl is seen to be cowering behind him. Even though, the girl is seen to be the last one standing, she is still not seen as an independent woman who is able to carry on trying to survive all alone. This is portrayed when a over the shoulder is shown and her frustrated facial expression and scream.      

Rings (2016)

In this film, even though the male character is shown as less powerful than the female character, he is still helping her during the problems she faces. A medium shot and close up shot is used to show how the male character helps the female protagonist remove from the danger of being hit by a wire pole. Near the beginning of the trailer, the female protagonist is represented as a strong woman as she tries to fight and make herself believe the spirit is not real. However, this starts to change as she turns vulnerable and starts to slowly give up because she experiences horrible situations. The male character is always beside her to show how even though he is not the main protagonist, he is still there to help the female protagonist and without him she wouldn’t be able to survive the challenges she faced.   

Over all difference is seen throughout the years on representation on women. In the olden days, woman are more sexualised and is shown to be vulnerable and weak, who is always relying on the male protagonist. However, as time has changed women are seen as strong willed and able to fight back. There is always one female character that is shown to be objectified even if the text is shown to be subverting on the stereotype of representation of female roles.  

Narrative theory

Trailer analysis: The forest (2016)

The forest is directed by ‘Jason Zada’, who mostly directs indie films. Zada is mostly known for directing ‘The Houses October Built’ and ‘Take this lollopop’, which are both indie horror films. The forest had a budget of $10 million, which tells us that the film is independent because the budget has to be over $10 million to be labelled as a mainstream film. The companies that distributed this film are not conglomerate companies; they are all indie companies, who are not so well known internationally. The companies that distributed ‘The forest’ are ‘Gramercy pictures’, ‘Lava Bear’ and ‘AL film’.

This film’s genre is a hybrid of horror and mystery, like every other horror genre trailer this one also starts with a long shot of a house, with a very dark lighting. This scene can connote two things: the first, to signify darkness because it has been shot at midnight and the other, is family. From the beginning, non-diegetic sound has been used as a narrator to tell the story, which is also used as a sound bridge to put together different scenes. Not only that, the background music is being played throughout the whole trailer to make the audience mesmerise and get their full attention. This plays a huge role of making people jump during the important part of the trailer. Diegetic sound is also used such as the creaking sound of the door, this gives a further eeriness to the scene making the audience expect something to happen. The background sound changes depending on the scene. When the text appears in the scene, they tend to have a voice saying the protagonists name ‘Sara’. This repeats over and over again to foreshadow that someone might be waiting for her in ‘the forest’. When the forest was shown, they added an animalistic sound of a wild animal to show the forest is a dangerous place. Furthermore, the trailer’s background music has a lower level of volume, when something is going to pop up and following that a booming sound is added. This is done to emphasise the creature/sprit and make the audience experience from the same fear as the protagonist. Also, dialogue from the guard is used to show how deadly the forest is, when he emphasises while saying ‘Do not leave the path’.

Mise-en-scene is one of the most important elements of making the film possess the eerie atmosphere. The setting is mostly based in Japan, the Aokigahara forest also called ‘The suicide forest’ that is located at the bottom part of Mount Fuji. The costumes used when the showing the twins look very old fashion, making the audience believe that it took place in the past. Also, since the dress is one piece and looks similar to a hospital gown and their gestures are shown to be awkward making the scene look mysterious. When Sara goes to Japan, not much of the setting is shown as it could contrast with the current atmosphere because the buildings would be shown as bring and lively atmosphere. The trailer contains iconography of a sign that says ‘no entry’ to once again make a reference of all the evilness and the danger within the forest. The gestures and facial expression of the characters are shown to indicate their fear. The trailer also contains some gruesome sense of the antagonist (the sprit) and some dead bodies hanging to give the audience some insight of the movie and to make the target audience feel excited and scared at the same time.

In addition, lighting and editing has been used to make the target audience enjoy the trailer. A variety of editing has been used to make the trailer look interesting. In the beginning mostly slow dissolve was used to portray the serious atmosphere. However, later on cutaways was used to show the stress of the protagonist, which has an effect on the audience by making them feel the character’s emotions. Also, when something bad happens to the protagonist the scene fades to black makes the audience curious of what happened later. Also, the lighting of the scene is dark even when it is taken in day time. This suggests that even light, which connotes to hope is unable to reach inside the forest. When close up to the protagonists face the use of low lighting shows the character’s fear in more detail. Hard front light is used with a long shot of the protagonist running towards the light near the end of the trailer, making the audience feel that there could be some hope and a way to defeat the antagonist. Mostly close up is used to show the important parts of the film, which includes injuries, hands coming from the ground and man’s face at the end to make the audience jump. These scenes are put together as a montage of small clips. 

Three waves of feminism

The first wave of feminism was introduced on 1830’s and early 1900’s. This wave consisted of the women fighting for their rights of equality, which included the right to vote, education, employment, marriage law and many more. 

The second wave was introduced on the 1960’s-1980’s. This is where they broadened the subject of the first wave. They focused on having the right to have legal abortion and birth control without the man taking in charge of the decision. Sexism and the equal rights in political view were also focused gravely. 

The third wave is the final wave, which was established on the 1990's. This wave is a response for the successful outcome of the second wave. During this wave victims of sexual assault were encouraged to fight for their justice from the law. The feminist thrived to changes the portrayal of women from media and stereotypes. 

   

Trailer analysis: 'Let me in'

Let me in is a film directed by ‘Matt Reeves’ and is produced by a British film company called ‘Hammer Film Production’, American company ‘Overture’ and many more. This film contains sub-genres of horror, fantasy and drama. This is a mainstream film as it had an estimated budget of $20 million.

As this film is not entirely focused on the genre of horror, the mise-en-scene (setting) is not located only inside a house. However, even when the scene takes place outside, it is mostly in an area with dark lighting such as the tunnel or the forest. During the first few scenes, the girl is shown to be wearing a skirt and bare foot, which is symbolic as it makes the audience feel if she is the heroine, who is shown to be vulnerable and often seeks help form the main hero. However, this is shown to be wrong as the girl is the stronger one as she expresses her power through her gesture, when she puts her hand on top of the boy’s hand. This already shows the audience the close relationship between the two protagonists. Both protagonists’ facial expression changes through the trailer. Their facial expression contrasts each other; the girl’s changes from warm and pleasant smile to dangerous and mysterious expression whereas, the boy’s changes from happy, confident (with the girl) to fearful and startled (with the girl). The girl’s father mostly wears dark clothes, foreshadowing he could be going to do something terrible. It also suggests that he could be playing the role of antagonist.

Moreover, the lighting of the trailer is dark as, mostly all the scene takes place at night time. The key light used in this trailer seems to be present in the scene such as the light from the street or the car’s light. However, filler light such as under lighting is used when the antagonist is shown to make the audience feel his evilness. High lighting and low lighting has been used in different situations. Mostly low lighting has been used when the girl is present in the scene to show that even though she one of the protagonist, she may be concealing her sins or her dark secret. On the other hand, when the male protagonist is alone in the scene, high lighting is shown to portray his fear and is defenceless without the girl.

In terms of sound, diegetic and non-diegetic sound has been used to narrate the story. Sound bridge has been used from the start of the trailer, where the principle talks about a murder and the scene shows a log shot to empathise how the school only have few amount of students to make the audience aware of the fact that, the location is of the area is isolated and probably in the outskirt. The use of a close up to a boy’s face shows how he is one of the main characters, possibly the protagonist. The sound bridge extends to another scene, where the murder took place. During the transition non-diegetic sound of a camera clicking is used to join the two scenes together, so that the scene could flow and make the audience aware that the principle was talking about that scene.  

Theory: Sigmund Freud 'uncanny' + Sadistic voyeurism

Sigmund Freud ‘uncanny’:

Sigmund Freud published his theory of ‘The uncanny’, in 1919, which was originally called ‘Das Unheimliche’. The adjective ‘uncanny’, means being unfamiliar to something we are familiar with. This is used to make the text more frightening, even when the audience is aware of the objects' purpose. 

Sadistic voyeurism:

When someone takes pleasure from watching someone go through pain and suffering. 
For example, some audience would watch horror/thriller/gore genre film to seek pleasure and thrill, in the trailer of 'Quarantine' it shows the disruption of equilibrium, where the characters fight for their survival as each characters are murdered slowly building up tension. Such unfortunate scene can be consumed by the the audience in a positive way by making them feel enjoyment or satisfaction.

Using what I already know

Annabelle is a horror genre film, directed by John R. Leonetti and produced by Peter Safran and James Wan. This film is a prequel of ‘The conjuring’ series. It is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. This is a conglomerate company; this means they are able to have a high budget to create the film, which is a budget of $6.5 million. The film is able to attract a mass audience because Warner Brothers are a multi-national conglomerate, who also possesses cross-platform companies. This means the film can to promote into different platform. Thus, attracting more audience and gaining more profit.

The trailer itself is very indulging to the target audience. The scenes contain a lot of dark lighting from the very beginning to create an eerie atmosphere. Even in during the day, the weather is shown to be very dark, foreshadowing the future of the characters.

The use of diegetic and non-diegetic sound is used to narrate the story. In the beginning, the dialogues between the two protagonists are used to make the audience believe something is already going wrong. This catches the audience’s attention since the start, making the want to watch the trailer till the end. Non-diegetic sound is used a lot for the background and also as a narrator to make the audiences are excited and also aware of what is going on.

In the beginning of the trailer, it contains a lot of fast paced shots, which complements the background sound, the character’s scream and also the transition of the scenes. They have used slow pan towards the dead body and the doll, with the intense background sound to make the audience anticipate that something will happen. There are a various types of shots being used mostly close up and medium shot when the doll is shown. This could be to empathise the importance of the doll and remind the audience that the doll is the antagonist. They have used a low angle shot, when the church is shown because they want the audience to feel that there could be some hope for the protagonist. Right after that shot, a woman is shown with the protagonist making the audience believe that she has the role of the ‘helper’ as Propp’s character theory suggests.

Moreover, the use of text is also used to keep reminding the audience about the presence of the doll. Furthermore, these texts are only shown between scenes that are interesting to grab the audience’s attention on important facts such as the release dates.

In terms of the mise-en-scene, they are mostly shot inside a house and flat. The furniture and the props used to decorate the house look rather old fashion and plain. Therefore, they are not portraying any lively or bright aura towards the scene and the action happening in the scene.

Marketing Campaign: The Conjuring 2

Introduction to project

For this year's coursework a promotional package needs to be created based on the genera of 'horror'. The promotional package includes a magazine cover, a film poster and a teaser trailer. The main criteria when creating the teaser trailer is to not exceed over the time of a minute. Any further research will be published in this blog. 

While producing the teaser, our group needs to take in account of all the different shots and angles based on the atmosphere of the scene and how the characters are represented. An important aspect of any horror teaser is the background music; without the frightening music the teaser trailer would not be able to engage the audience, neither can it portray the sinister vibe. 

Another key element is lighting, filming in a bright setting will not make the scene have a ghoulish aura. Therefore, the lighting needs to be dim to create the right atmosphere for a horror teaser. In addition, the teaser does not have to be in chronological order as most professional teaser only contains the best scenes, which are put together in a cinematic montage.  This means the teaser does not have to make sense but it needs to be able to convey the storyline of the film to the audience. 

Process of Editing

Camera shots

Audience questionnaire